Greektown

Hey readers! For our last official night of May Project we decided to gather with some family and friends and enjoy a night out on the town – Greektown, that is! We opted for the delicious and traditional Greek Islands restaurant, located at 200 S. Halsted St. Definitely make reservations ahead of time, because Greek Islands is a happening place, especially on prime nightlife evenings. Since we dined at 8:30 on a Friday night, we made sure to make reservations. Check out the restaurant’s official website here for more information:

http://www.greekislands.net/

The traditional Grecian decorations created an exciting foreign atmosphere. Within seconds of sitting down, the friendly waiters were taking drink and appetizer orders. To start, we ordered three Saganaki dishes for all seven of us. When you visit most definitely order the Saganaki! Even our pickiest of friends loved the cheesy treat and nothing is cooler than watching the waiters light your meal on fire and belt out a big “Oopa!”

For dinner, there is an endless menu full of authentic main courses. Siobhan ordered the keftedes (Greek meatballs) and Sarah indulged in the dolmades (stuffed grape leaves). Other dishes ordered at our table included entrees with chicken, pasta, potatoes and octopus.While we decided to skip desert, the desert menu was filled with tons of tasty treats, such as the traditional baklava dish. Here’s the Saganaki, followed by four of the main dishes ordered at our table:

It is safe to say everyone was more than pleased with their meals and the service. We were out of the restaurant in just over an hour – a ridiculously short amount of time for such a busy place. While there are many awesome food options in Greektown, Greek Islands is most definitely a delicious and safe bet!

Thanks for reading!

Sarah and Siobhan

Wrigley Field – Crosstown Classic!

Hey everyone!

Today we went out to Wrigley Field for a baseball game pitting the two Chicago teams against each other – the American league White Sox versus the National league Cubs. Siobhan is a Sox fan but Sarah supports the Cubs; it’s one of the only things we ever fight about! We had amazing seats just a few rows above the Cubs dugout along the third base line, so we had a phenomenal view of the game. As each batter left to warm up, and at the end of each inning when the Cubs jogged back to their dugout, we could see the players up close. A few times they tossed used balls our way! Though we never caught one, we saw two true acts of crosstown friendship emerge from the tosses; a Sox fan caught the ball himself but gave it to a Cubs fan, and a Cubs fan caught a ball and handed it over to two elementary school aged Sox fans. See, we don’t really hate each other! Sox-fan-Siobhan even made friends with two Cubs fans sitting next to us! Take a look at our great view:

Unfortunately for Siobhan and other southsiders, the Sox lost the game 3-8. For the first time in FOREVER the Sox lost every game in the Crosstown Classic series. Sarah and the other home team supporters at Wrigley weren’t complaining! We decked ourselves out in Cubs and Sox colors and sported our teams’ baseball caps to the game, as you can see in our cute selfie below:

The day started out hot and sunny, so we slathered on sunscreen and bought a bottle of water to share – at $4.50 per small bottle, it’s not worth spending the money on more than one! As you’d expect, everything was overpriced in the ballpark. But Wrigleyville is home to many bars and restaurants that supporters frequent before, during, and after the games for a prolonged and rowdy meal. If you get to a game while in Chicago, make sure to carry a bit of cash with you for the pricey ballpark purchases.

All in all we had a great afternoon! Parking is close to impossible near the field on game days, so plan to walk or take the train. And decide before you come which team you’re going to support, because Chicagoans are diehard fans!

Thanks for reading!

Sarah and Siobhan

Green City Market, Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory, and RJ Grunt’s

Hey readers! Today we took advantage of Chicago’s beautiful weather and free family-friendly activities. We began our day exploring the Green City Market, an outdoor farmers’ market next to the Lincoln Park Zoo. The market runs every Wednesday and Saturday from 7am to 1pm. Check them out here:

http://www.greencitymarket.org/index.asp

Sarah had been to the market previously and loved the crepe stand, so we saved our appetites for those tasty French treats. As soon as we got there, we ignored all other tents and made a beeline for the Gotta B Crepes tent. Here’s their official website here:

http://www.gottabcrepes.com/

The menu included a sampling of their sweet and savory crepes, but we both selected butter crepes filled with tart raspberry preserve and dusted with powdered sugar. The guy in front of us in line ordered a crepe stuffed with bacon, spinach, and cheese, and topped with whipped cream. We (along with the employees!) thought his combination was pretty gross, but he was pretty excited about it! While we waited for our crepes to be made on the spot, the chefs were about as enticing as their crepes! They joked and laughed with us, making us wish we worked there, too.

After we quickly devoured our buttery breakfast on a nearby bench, we met up with our friend Julia and strolled around the rest of the market, sampling fresh Wisconsin cheese and dip. Off in the corner of the market, a large crowd caught our eye, so we ventured over and learned there were also cooking demonstrations. Unfortunately for us, the chef had already given out all of his brightly colored taco samples by the time we got there. However, when he saw our disappointed faces he improvised with the leftover ingredients and made us some alcohol-free rhubarb and lime margaritas. We all licked the bottoms of our cups until we tasted every last drop of the delicious treat.

From there, we crossed the street and we were at the Lincoln Park Zoo. One of the great things about the zoo is that it’s free and relatively easy to get to from all directions of the city. Sarah wanted to see the polar bears, so we meandered along the paths alongside tons of elementary school field trip groups. Even if you’ve never been there before and have a horrible sense of direction like us, just following a path will bring you to a variety of intriguing animal exhibits. A few other favorites were the sea lion pool and the jaguar enclosure in the lion house. When planning your visit, make sure to stop by their official website first for special events and deals:

http://www.lpzoo.org/

Just across from the entrance to the zoo is the frequently overlooked Lincoln Park Conservatory – also free to visitors. We found that the entire conservatory could easily be explored in 20 minutes, though botany enthusiasts could spend an hour or so perusing the plant landscapes. The humidity, bird chirping sound effects, and real life praying mantises transported us to the jungles of the world.

After relaxing in the conservatory’s outdoor park for a little, we stumbled upon RJ Grunt’s – a classic Chicago restaurant famous for their burgers and shakes – less than 10 minutes from the zoo on foot. The atmosphere and waitresses were friendly and lighthearted. We both ordered “The Works” burger – a cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions,and mayonnaise. Siobhan also made a good call and ordered the best Oreo milkshake we’ve ever tasted. Definitely get a shake if you eat here!! Check out their menu on their official website (be prepared for some rockin’ music when you open it up!):

http://www.rjgruntschicago.com/

Overall, if planning a visit to one of the four places we visited today, consider making a day out of all the attractions in the Lincoln Park area. Most are free and all are fun!

Thanks for reading!

Sarah and Siobhan

Shedd Aquarium, FIeld Museum and Water Taxi Adventures

 

Hey Readers! Today we spent the day exploring Chicago’s Museum Campus, the space right along the lakefront by Soldier Field, the stadium for the Chicago Bears. First, we visited the Shedd Aquarium – Sarah’s personal favorite place in the entire city. The aquarium also appears to be many other tourists’ favorite, because the line to get in was LONG. Make sure you plan ahead and go early on a weekday when visiting this popular attraction. Peep the line here:

Filled with countless excited children and their exhausted moms, the Shedd is definitely a family-friendly environment. Many of the exhibits even include special activities or areas for younger kids. For example, the penguin exhibit has a playground-esque area where kids can put on penguin costumes and slide down pretend icy, Arctic slopes.

Some of our favorite places to check out include the beluga exhibit (what’s cuter than whales with permanent-smiles on their faces?!), the sea star petting pond (you actually get to touch real sea stars!), and the rays in the Coral Reef exhibit! Also be sure to visit the famous Jellies exhibit! Here are some other pics of our aquarium adventures:

Following our visit to the Shedd, it took us just minute to walk over to the Field Museum of Natural History. Our good friend Patricia told us that her mom – who works in the Fishes section of Zoology at the museum –  could give us a behind-the-scenes tour, as we both know the Field well from countless visits with our families and on school field trips. Before meeting up with her, we took a mandatory tourist photo with Sue (the Field’s iconic dinosaur skeleton), checked out a temporary exhibit on bioluminescence, then wandered around the animal section on the museum’s ground floor. This permanent exhibit is a maze of dimly-lit wide corridors lined with tall glass-enclosed cases. Each case is filled with taxidermy – but in a cool way, with the walls and ground painted and decorated to look like each animal’s habitat, and the animals positioned in realistic poses. It’d definitely be a spooky place to be at night, but we both thought the sets were impressively intricate and realistic. We made sure to check out the man-eating lions of Tsavo (which our Segway tour guide hailed as a must-see) while in the animal section. A few other rooms in the area were filled with cases of smaller animals. Sarah also found a cute bear friend:

Our behind-the-scenes tour was an incredible experience. We were led around for two full hours and got to see wet labs, meet some of the top  researchers in various zoology fields as they worked on their projects, learn about current research on fish and birds, peek into a liquid nitrogen specimen storage facility, and get within inches of specimens in the museum’s collections of fishes, mammals, reptiles, and plants. One of the most enlightening stops on our tour was in the lab of a taxidermist. She had recently finished working with squirrels and had them laid out on her table, which was a little jarring but fascinating nonetheless.

What struck us the most about the tour was how passionate and excited everyone working at the museum was. Neither of us have any knowledge of zoology, but everyone we talked to – from the youngest interns to the most senior retired researchers – immediately launched into stories about their work with a level of eagerness we’ve rarely seen. We have a new level of respect for everyone at the museum now that we’ve met them and heard them speak about their passions. Though a behind-the-scenes tour isn’t in the cards for most tourists, the fact that it was so enjoyable and compelling for us speaks to the Field Museum’s special atmosphere. It’s a must-visit on your trip to Chicago; a truly underestimated and overlooked gem with exhibits to interest everyone!

After a long day of exploring exhibits, our legs were tired and we were left to decide how to get back to Sarah’s house. Instead of taking our typical route of public transportation, we opted to try out a water-taxi. This method of transportation was definitely on the more expensive side and clearly something only tourists do. It was an $8 ride from museum campus to Navy Pier. While we probably wouldn’t do it again because of the price, it was still cool to take a boat-ride on Lake Michigan. The route through the water also gave us a magnificent view of Chicago’s skyline. Check out some pictures from our tour, here:

All in all, we had a great day exploring some world-famous museums and we would definitely recommend making a day out of museum campus to tourists of any age!

Thanks for reading!

Sarah and Siobhan

Giordano’s

Hey everyone!

Since today was Memorial Day, lots of the typical touristy places we still want to check out were closed. Since we hadn’t yet sampled Chicago’s famous stuffed pizza – a must-taste for all tourists! – we decided to give it a try for lunch today. We opted for Giordano’s on 53rd street and Blackstone Avenue in Hyde Park, but the Chicago hotspot has several locations throughout the city. Check out their official website for more locations and a menu:

http://giordanos.com/

When we arrived around 12:30pm there were only half a dozen other diners in the restaurant. The bright, warm lighting and walls covered with vintage Chicago posters lent the two large dining rooms a cheery vibe despite their emptiness. Our server was chirpy and helpful, though once the lunchtime rush came in and the rooms started to fill with hungry tourists and locals, it was hard to get drink refills and other personal table attention. The menu has tons of options, but we 100% recommend the stuffed pizzas – Chicago is the home of this tasty treat! Deciding how much to order is always tough, and we found that one small Giordano’s stuffed pizza is enough for two (maybe three) people. Don’t order too much, ’cause this stuffed pizza will definitely stuff you! The mushroom and pepperoni pizza caught our eye, and we primed our palates with a house salad (lettuce, tomatoes, and thinly shredded white cheese, tossed in a lemon vinaigrette).

One tip we discovered – order your pizza ahead of time. While we sat anxiously awaiting our pizza with grumbling tummies and hungrily picking at the remnants of our salad, other diners came and went, receiving their pizzas within 10 minutes of sitting down. We waited a full hour for our one small stuffed pizza (the advertised wait time is 40 minutes). Though it was worth the wait, pre-ordering is clearly the way to go! Make sure to clear a few hours out of your busy touring schedule before committing to Giordano’s. Here are a few snapshots of our trip:

Overall it was a relaxed and filling (though time-consuming) lunch. A meal at Giordano’s should be near the top of any Chicago tourist’s itinerary!

Thanks for reading!

Sarah and Siobhan

P.S. If you are looking for other restaurants and food hotspots in Chicago, check out our classmates’ May Project blog on food in the city:

https://thechicagoinsider.wordpress.com/

Randolph Street Market

Hey readers! Today we ventured on over to the Randolph Street Market, located in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. Check out their official website here:

http://imagepilots.com/index.php

Today was the season opener for the monthly antique market, which Siobhan has been attending with her mom for many years. A good friend’s mom organizes the market, and has guided it from its inception as a small, little-known secret, through to the its present standing as a huge and highly anticipated monthly gathering for families and experienced antique collectors alike. General admission for one day is $10, but luckily we had our handy dandy student IDs, making it only $5 to enter. Can you say bargain? Bargain!

While the bright colors and large amount of knick knacks makes the entrance overwhelming at first, as soon as you begin at one booth you’ll immediately become lost in the world of antiques. The booths contain everything from bracelets made out of spoons and old gym lockers, to typewriters and vintage designer purses. Take a look for yourself:

We left the market with some fun little goodies. Sarah purchased some silver and blue earrings for prom from a Native American inspired booth for $10. Siobhan found a quilted cross-body bag for $20, perfect for roaming campus next year at college. But even if we hadn’t found anything we wanted to buy, it still would have been a successful trip. We had so much fun poking around in all the booths and trying on vintage clothing and accessories. Here are some pics of us rockin’ our new looks:

All that shopping made us a little hungry, but luckily as soon as our tummies rumbled, Richard Drews from Dinky Donuts came to the rescue. Check out the company’s official website here:

http://DinkyDonutsInc.com/

Not only does the market have antique booths, but it also boasts food booths and live music! We decided to hit up the Dinky Donuts stand for a midday treat. As we waited in line, we grooved to some 50’s rock music by local bands. The donuts were freshly made at the booth and scooped into a bag filled with toppings of your choice. We opted for powdered sugar, but different cinnamons and cocoa powders were also popular choices amongst customers. One bag, filled with over a dozen small two-bite donuts, was only $6 and contained more than enough donuts for the two of us to share. Check out our delicious treat:

After our snack we explored the market’s indoor section inside Plumber’s Hall. There were three floors laden with many more incredible finds, including furniture and old statues and signs. This part of the market looked like:

All in all, the collectors running the booths were friendly and passionate, the selection varied in prices and items, and the overall atmosphere was relaxed and summery. The Randolph Street Market is a great way to spend a Saturday or Sunday with friends, kids, or even alone. We’ll definitely be back next month!

Thanks for reading!

Sarah and Siobhan

Selected Works Used Books and Sheet Music in the Fine Arts Building

Howdy readers! During our segway tour, our tour guide Dan mentioned the Fine Arts Building as a cool place to check out for its architecture and the artist studios inside. He also mentioned that the building’s elevator is the oldest operating elevator in the city. Interestingly enough, the man who manually operates it is blind and can apparently feel each floor as the elevator ascends and descends. This, we decided, was enough reason alone to check it out.

The building was easy to find from the outside, but quiet and intimidating upon our entrance. We went in with the goal of finding the famous paperweight collection, but we couldn’t find any directory and decided to take the elevator and explore on our own. The elevator was old and took a long time to arrive at the ground floor, but riding in it felt like stepping back to the days of Al Capone.

We went to the second floor on a whim and came upon this old, used bookstore, called Selected Works. Check out their website here:

http://www.selworkschicago.com/_/Home.html

Outside the store there were piles of books on sale for $2. Inside the store was a maze of bookshelves and containers filled with all types of books and sheet music. The prices were great and the owner greeted us with a smile. No one really bothered us and we could easily take our time to peruse the shelves. They had everything from cookbooks and a dictionary of quotes, to beginning piano sheet music and children’s books. Don’t expect to find the latest New York Times’ bestseller, but if you aren’t looking for a certain book, it’s a great place to find something unexpected. Beware the store’s very own mascot, the cat. So if you are allergic to or afraid of cats, this may not be the place for you, as the goofy cat will corner you in small spaces just looking for some loving. Siobhan is already planning a return visit in the winter to find her dad some old mystery novels for Christmas. This is just another example of the great free finds located across the city, as long as you are adventurous enough to go looking for them.

 

Thanks for reading!

Sarah and Siobhan

Museum of Contemporary Photography

Hey guys! So one of the most important things we’ve learned while touring Chicago is that there are plenty of free wonderful opportunities on the street, like the Museum of Contemporary Photography, located on Michigan Ave a few blocks south of Millennium Park. The current exhibit was called Spectator Sports and featured a variety of artwork depicting the different ways sports can be analyzed. For example, one room featured two different videos on different walls, showing the simultaneous reactions by fans of competing soccer teams. Another room contained 64 visual representations of World Cup soccer games, meaning the artist traced the movement of the ball on the field throughout each match. These line tracings made up that installment. It was awesome to look at, because you could tell which team dominated the game and where on the field they were the strongest. Another wall exhibited five photographs of 2012 Olympic female gymnasts in the exact moment before performing their routines. The museum is small, consisting of three floors, and can be easily explored in twenty to thirty minutes. We definitely recommend the Museum of Contemporary Photography and advise you to look into what their one exhibit is prior to your visit.

Thanks for reading!

Sarah and Siobhan

Segway Tour!

Today we decided to splurge on a segway tour of the city. Since the creation of the segway, we have seen various tour groups around the city and have always been extremely jealous of tourists roaming the streets of Chicago, looking cool on their little motorized vehicles. Therefore, while $60 per person was on the pricey side, it was definitely worth it! We used Absolutely Chicago Segway Tours, located right outside of Millennium Park at 238 East Monroe St. Shout out to Dan and Andy! Check them out here:

http://chicagosegways.com/

The tour began with an informational video on how NOT to ride a segway. Basically, the video consisted of a lot of stick figure cartoons falling off their segways and flat on their faces. Bottom line – we were scared! Our friend Jillian came along with us and she had already ridden a segway while visiting San Diego, so she calmed us down. Here’s a picture of Jillian and Siobhan before the tour, after the ominous video:

After the video we were given brief individual segway riding lessons. It was a little confusing at first, but within a few minutes we were all zooming around pretty easily.

We began the tour headed east towards the lake and ventured through Grant Park. Our tour guide, Dan, was filled with tons of little anecdotes and fun facts about Chicago. We learned that Buckingham Fountain has four pairs of seahorses in the water to symbolize the four states that surround Lake Michigan and that Al Capone had his own barbershop with one station. He would send his “friends” there to get their hair cut, but everyone he sent their mysteriously disappeared. It turned out that Al Capone’s “barber” was actually a hit-man and when Capone sent someone to get their hair cut it was really their death sentence.

We also explored the various musical venues in Grant Park and learned that there is actually historical reasoning and tradition behind all of Chicago’s awesome free music during the spring and summer. During the Depression, to raise morale, someone decided to host free live music for all of the city. Some large number of people showed up and this is what inspires all of the great free music today.

From there we segway-ed over to Museum Campus (the location of the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium) and learned that because of the Depression, the Shedd Aquarium ran out of money before it could fill its salt water tanks with fish. Chicagoans actually used to pay a nickel just to see salt water! Eventually, though, the tanks were filled with fish and the Shedd became the city’s most popular attraction.

The view from Museum Campus is probably one of the best views of the city. Luckily we were given an opportunity to take a little break, hop off our segways and rest our legs. We used this opportunity to take a snack and try our very first Chicago-style hot dog. It was so yummy! We were a little confused as to why we had never had one before. Here is our attempt at it, Lady and the Tramp style:

All in all, we absolutely loved our segway tour with Absolutely Chicago Segway Tours. While its on the more expensive side of tours, it’s definitely a one-of-a-kind experience. Here are some other pictures from our segway adventures:

Thanks for reading!

– Sarah and Siobhan

Roaming the Magnificent Mile

Hi guys! Today we didn’t have anything specific planned, but we wanted to mimic many Chicago tourists and roam the Magnificent Mile, Michigan Avenue. We started off in Water Tower Place, one of the city’s few shopping malls and unlike any mall you will see in the suburbs. Water Tower Place is a vertical mall, filled with tons of clothing stores, a food court and various other quirky shops. One of our favorites is Marbles: The Brain Store. 

Other places we visited in Water Tower Place included the famous American Girl Doll Place and the recently added Lego Store. Siobhan posed next to a life-size Woody from Toy Story and we found our American Girl Doll look-a-like dolls.

From there we headed outside and across the street to the actual Water Tower. Make sure you stop inside when you visit, because there is a free art gallery. The exhibits rotate, but when we visited the exhibit was local artists’ representation of animals.

These locations are both on the Magnificent Mile, so we just kept walking south on Michigan Ave and exploring whatever caught our eye.

Our advisor suggested we check out the Carbon and Carbide building, an early Chicago skyscraper that was designed to look like a champagne bottle in protest of prohibition. Luckily we ran into this historical piece of architecture as we approached Millennium Park on the Magnificent Mile.

As we walked we looked down intersecting streets and approached buildings that appealed to us. One of these was an old cathedral nestled between modern skyscrapers. It turned out that it housed a free photography installation about mental health and illness. The exhibit also included headsets with each portrait and we were able to hear the subject speak about his or her conditions. The atmosphere in the chapel was conducive to reflection and appreciative of the subject matter. Here are some photos:

The Magnificent Mile is known for its shopping opportunities, but you don’t need to spend a dime to make a day out of it.

Thanks for reading!

Sarah and Siobhan